Saying 'No' to G.I Joe
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The San Francisco Chronicle reports that taxpayers in that fair city are financing a public celebration from which minorities and other disadvantaged groups will be explicitly excluded.
Some 50,000 people were expected to march through the city in the 12th annual Dyke March this weekend, and organizers say the only men who will be allowed to attend are those who "are questioning and challenging gender constructs imposed by the mainstream and do not necessarily identify as women."
The latter is only in deference to the evolving gender spectrum.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the Chronicle, $5,000 of the event's annual budget of $20,000 is paid by the city's Grants for the Arts program.
G.I. No
Peaceniks in Minnesota are demanding that the Minnesota Twins baseball team halt a promotional giveway of G.I. Joe dolls because it sends the wrong signal to the kiddies, reports the Associated Press.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Twins plan to give away Duke dolls ("the calm and determined battlefield commander of the G.I. Joe team") to 5,000 children who attend an upcoming game against the Kansas City Royals. The team says its an attempt to honor service men and women.
But John Varone, a Vietnam veteran and president of the Twin Cities chapter of Veterans for Peace, says the effort is misplaced. "For gosh sakes, the last place we need to promote war is at our national pastime," he says.
Whither Otahkia
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Associated Press reports that Southeast Missouri State University will drop the Indian nicknames it uses for its sports teams in order to appease those who find them demeaning to Native American culture.
The Board of Regents at the Cape Girardeau-based college voted to drop the Indians nickname for the mens' teams as well as the Otahkians nickname for the women. The women's team name came from the legend of a Cherokee woman named Otahki who died near Cape Girardeau on the Trail of Tears forced march to the Oklahoma territory in the 1830s.
Glinda Ladd Seabaugh, president of the American Indian Center of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau, called the nicknames a form of cultural racism.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Southeast has downplayed the Indians nickname for several years, to the point that the only remaining vestige of the 80-year-old tradition was the word "Indians" painted in one end zone of the team's football field.
Squawking
The state of Oregon has agreed to change the name of a spot near Klamath Falls from Squaw Flat to Switchback Flat following complaints from some locals that the former term is derogatory to Native Americans, reports the Herald and News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Oregon Geographic Names Board approved the request by the Klamath Tribes to change the name of the spot on Forest Service land about 16 miles northeast of Klamath Falls.
The state Legislature has encouraged communities to go around changing the names of places around the state because the term "squaw" is considered derogatory in some circles even though etymologists have roundly dismissed the negative origins.
English Class
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Civil Rights organization in Arizona has complained to federal authorities that a school in Phoenix is discriminating against Latinos because it is sending home official correspondence only in English, reports the Arizona Republic.
The Arizona chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, says officials at Ingleside Middle School discriminate against Spanish-speaking students by failing to communicate with them about school-related matters in a language they can understand.
For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over the TongueTied daily edition.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mailbag:
Mary G. in Warren, Mich. writes:
Why has it gotten offensive to keep on bashing Detroit? Because these comments are based on incidents from 20 years ago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Name me one other city in the whole country that has had to be mocked for 20-year-old incidents, and nothing but these incidents. Back then, the city was widely covered for its numerous Devil's Night house fires, and one single photo of a drunken idiot who posed in front of a burning car during the Tigers' World Series celebration. Since that time, Detroit citizens have worked hard to keep watch on their streets and keep Devil's Night fires to a minimum.
Also, Detroit has celebrated four world championships in the past decade -- count them, FOUR -- ALL without incident!
But residents in the Detroit area know the bias we must face from the media, not just because of these very old incidents, but because the city of Detroit does not represent the glamour and celebrity status that outlets such as yours favor (never mind the fact that Detroiters would much rather celebrate the likes of Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman and Bob Seger among us than any shallow entertainment figures from Hollywood).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We've also had to endure reporters focusing only on the past reputation of the city of Detroit, instead of giving our sports teams the credit they deserve for their tremendous talent and their hard-earned championships. All of this not only represents anti-Detroit bias, but poor, inaccurate journalism.
Jaime in Atlanta writes:
What utterly frosts my butt is the fact that calling an Irishman a "leprachaun", which was later called by the perpetrator as a "Halloween" term, is considered acceptable while any comparable comment against any other race is considered "racism."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I have many friends of many races and they all felt the same way. I am not Republican, nor Democrat, left nor right, but I am tired of unequality in the land of supposed equality.
Scott C. writes:
You and your employer are doing a great job of restoring fairness in reporting and balance in editorializing. If it weren't so sad it would be funny to watch how threatening this has become to those who are not accustomed to the light of inquiry. It's great to have access to a network committed to facilitating informed decision-making (rather than recycling the one-sided, worn-out Pravda-lite that your bitter, reactionary leftist critics would seem to prefer).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Greg A. writes:
When will someone realize that retroactively making our history P.C. does nothing but erase the mistakes of our past. We are supposed to learn from those mistakes and if we annihilate them, then there is not text from which to learn.
Gavin C. writes:
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Those folks complaining about the revisions of the historical markers in Massachussets are lucky that the changes did not go all the way towards "fair and balanced." They might be shocked to learn that the English were the armed invaders and the Indians were defending their homeland despite being hopelessly outgunned. The English "savages" and their genocidal brutality are the main reason that there aren't many Indians left in New England.
Jim M. writes:
As usual, the religious right wants to interject religion into everything and then use it for political gain. They have demonized the courts and the public schools and now there is the cry of political correctness when the Pentagon will no longer accept medals with Christian inscriptions.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Here is my question: Is everyone in the military a Christian? No, of course not, it is a reflection of our general population and contains people of most races and religions.
I hate to keep reminding the morons on the right but we are a secular nation without an official religion.
You want to be Christians? Good. Now how about trying to be good Christians.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Peter B. writes:
The world is not going to bend over so you can tell insensitive, sexist or racist jokes that were never funny in the first place. Idiots have long needed to demean others to make themselves feel better. Get over it.
Respond to the Writer